Apartments planned for old Pietro's space on Dallas' Greenville Ave

Apartments planned for old Pietro's space on Dallas' Greenville Ave

Hopefully the residents who move into this building will walk to bars and restaurants nearby.
Rendering courtesy of RangeWater

The Greenville Avenue spot where longtime Italian restaurant Pietro's resided is teed up for a new tenant: more apartments.

RangeWater Real Estate, an Atlanta developer, has acquired the space at 5714 Richmond Ave. According to a release, they intend to build an 8-story apartment project with 236 units. First resident move-ins are planned for spring 2022.

In a statement, RangeWater president/CEO Steven Shores says that apartments are a good fit for the neighborhood.

"This community will appeal to renters by choice, who prefer the turnkey lifestyle of apartment living with connectivity to the great restaurants and retail along Greenville Avenue, as well as the nearby business districts,” Shores says.

However, a post by Dallas City Council member David Blewett hints that it's not a done deal.

"They have not submitted any plans through Planning and Zoning," he says. "Which means Council will not be voting on this project."

He says he is "in discussions with neighborhood leaders and city staff to assess options," and that East Dallas is predominately single family home neighborhoods and low rise apartments, and projects like this "do not fit the nature of the area."

Pietro's first hinted it would shut down in 2015 and finally closed two years later, in 2017. The restaurant was a major landmark which had been serving old-school, red-and-white checkered tablecloth Italian food since 1960.

The sale included a house that was located next door, setting the stage for any replacement, with the exception of a high-rise or a bar. Eight stories does not qualify as a high-rise.

It'll be a block away from the mega-apartment complex that opened in the space that used to be the Vickery Towers senior center.

RangeWater, which sounds like a washing machine manufacturer, has properties across the Southeast including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, and the Carolinas, as well as Colorado. They have four developments in Texas including the Sawyer on McKinney Avenue, and Pinnacle Ridge on Cockrell Hill Road in Dallas, plus The Venue Craig Ranch in McKinney and another in Austin.

Architecture GFF is the designer. The rendering shows it to be kind of a big box — but it's a big box that's across the street from Trader Joe's plus bars and restaurants such as the Libertine Bar, Rapscallion, and Hinodeya Ramen.